Fixer Upper
Notes
Transcript
Lesson - Ephesians 2:10
10 For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.
If someone were to look at your phone and look at the apps you most frequently use, or look at your web browser and see what’s on your tabs, they would be able to learn a lot about you as a person
If you’ve ever wondered why Google is so good at putting ads on your phone for things you’ve never told anyone you wanted but secretly did, it’s because big tech mines all that data - they know it tells them exactly what each one of us likes and dislikes
On one hand its kinda exciting to get a targeted ad like that cause its some product that you just have to have, but on the other hand its terrifying b/c it feels like there’s a computer that has somehow infiltrated your brain and knows your deepest darkest secrets
I got one the other day for this track saw as I’ve been looking a lot at home projects
That’s what a lot of my internet tabs are about - home remodel or building projects
If I had unlimited money and time, neither of which I have in real life, I can tell you I’d have a pretty sweet house
I like taking something and fixing it up or making it new or better
On YouTube, my subscriptions aren’t for the top creators, they’re for people who build cabinets and remodel homes
I have to admit that I even have a Pinterest account, and I have boards that I’ve created b/c Pinterest has all the amazing things to look at
Now, I’m not necessarily very good at the projects I do, and I always tell people not to look too closely cause they’ll see all the flaws and imperfections, but there’s something about me that likes a fixer upper - that can see the potential in what something could be with some hard work
God too is in the business of fixer uppers
The verse we just read in Ephesians chapter 2 comes at the end of one of the most foundational sections in all of scripture
The apostle Paul, who penned this Epistle or letter to the church in the city of Ephesus, lays out God’s plan for salvation for humankind
He tells us that human beings have a problem starting day 1 - sin
Sin is missing the mark of perfection that God has laid out for us in His word
And whether we miss that mark by a little or by a lot, its all sin
Sin leads to spiritual death. We are separated from our Creator b/c only perfection can exist in His presence
God is all loving but He is also a fair and just God, so He can’t turn a blind eye to our sin
7 But the Lord shall endure forever; He has prepared His throne for judgment. 8 He shall judge the world in righteousness, And He shall administer judgment for the peoples in uprightness.
So that leads us to a problem - we need to fix our sin issue. We need to become perfect or righteous so that we can be reunited with God again
That leads us to problem #2 - nothing we do will be good enough to erase our sin
Just like if a person lives a completely good or righteous life, but then has one moment of weakness and steals a car - even though they have all these good things they’ve done, they’re still a thief
And at their trial, a judge might give them a shorter sentence b/c of their character, but they’re still guilty, they still have to endure a consequence b/c of their sin
We can live the most pure and righteous life we possibly can, but we’re still guilty of sin, we cannot erase our sin by our own works
Thankfully God came up with a plan. He came down to this world in the form of a man, He took on flesh the Bible would say, lived a perfect life, and then went to the cross so He could take all of the sin of the world on Himself, and be a sacrifice that endured the Father’s judgement for us, the propitiation for our sins
Because of His death, trading His life for ours, He is able to save us from our sins
The glorious, amazing thing is that He doesn’t make us earn that salvation or work for it, He freely offers it to us in His grace - His unmerited, undeserved favor.
So if we confess our sins and ask for His forgiveness, He is faithful and just to forgive us of our sins, to cleanse us of our guilty consciences, and to adopt us as sons and daughters into His family again.
8 For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, 9 not of works, lest anyone should boast.
If you want some encouragement this week, meditate on Ephesians 2:1-10. Let God encourage you on the depth of His love for you, how easy salvation is, how gracious and loving our heavenly Father is towards us.
In verse 10 of Ephesians 2, Paul then lays out what comes next after salvation - God wants to do more than just save us from our sins, He has good works for us to do, things that He has prepared beforehand to walk in
The Greek word that Paul uses for beforehand is the word prŏĕtŏimazō (pro-et-ee-ma-zo) which means ordained before
God has these pre-determined, pre-ordained things He wants you to accomplish with your life to serve Him, deepen your relationship with Him, and to serve others
Paul tells us in 2 Corinthians that salvation, being born again as Jesus says in John chapter 3, leads to a newness of life
17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.
Ephesians also tells us that before we came to faith in Jesus, we were described as sons of disobedience, children of wrath, aliens and strangers, spiritually blind, unfruitful, and walking in darkness
But after we confess our sin and receive Christ’s forgiveness, we are described as alive in Christ, saints, rooted and grounded, children of light, His workmanship, and sons and daughters of the King - adopted into His family.
Ephesians 4 & 5 talk about the new conduct that should describe us as Christians
People who walk in unity, who speak truth in love, who can stand against the attacks of the enemy and are strong. People who are thankful, wise, and filled with the Spirit.
God looks at us as if we have so much potential to do these good works for Him, to be the type of person He wants us to be, to have a heart and a love for the Lord and for others
Yet if each one of us are honest with ourselves, I think in reality many people, especially myself, know that we still fall so short of those goals.
We still get stuck in sin, we don’t do the things we know to be right. Our faith is weaker than it should be, we focus on self more than on others, we don’t spend as much time with the Lord as we should
We have hurts and guilt and fear. We carry around brokenness or anxiety or doubt.
We see what other Christians are doing or how they’re living or how God is working in other people or in other churches or ministries and we wonder why He’s not doing the same thing here.
Maybe you fall into the cycle of comparisons - you compare yourself to others or to
the character that God calls us to have in the Word, and you feel guilty that you’re not where you think you should be.
So you blame yourself or question how good you are or how much God even loves you.
Then the enemy pounces on that and you spiral further and further, feeling like the promises of God’s word apply to good Christians but not to someone broken like you
If that’s you this morning, I want to encourage you with the verse we started our study off with
10 For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.
God looks at you and views you as His workmanship
Other translations of the Bible translate that word workmanship as handiwork or masterpiece
The Greek word that Paul uses there is the word pŏiēma which is where we get our word poem
Think about that for a minute. God doesn’t call you a failure, a hack. He doesn’t consider you broken. He calls you his poem, his masterpiece
Now the Lord knows that we are not an already finished masterpiece. To go back to the house analogy, we are not a brand new custom build in Cordillera, we are a fixer upper that has a lot of potential, but it needs some work to get there
The Bible has a word for that process - sanctification
Whenever you come across that word sanctified or sanctification in your devotional time, think about a fixer upper - God working on your life to make you more like Him
When we get saved, God clothes us in the perfection of His Son meaning He looks at us through the lens of Jesus and sees us as perfect. That’s why we can now go to heaven b/c the blood Jesus shed for us on the cross washes us clean and He accounts righteousness (perfection) towards us.
So positionally we are perfect, but practically we are not. Our position or standing in heaven is seen as righteous or perfect, but reality is that we are far from perfect.
There is still a lot of work to do. God doesn’t take our sin and flaws away overnight when we put our faith in Him. He has to work on us to slowly change us
When my wife and I first moved to Eagle County 13 years ago, we spent a lot of time looking for a house to buy.
Now the housing market was way different than it is today, so buying a house was actually a reality.
But we were young and had no money. I didn’t have the best paying job, and she was pregnant with our oldest so we were down to just one income
Pretty much all of the houses we looked at were out of our price point
We looked and looked and looked and were starting to feel kinda desperate when God suddenly brought the perfect house along for us - a fixer upper
Now positionally this house was the perfect house for us, but practically it was far from perfect
It was a foreclosure and the bank who took possession of it hadn’t winterized the house, so all of the pipes had frozen and burst and needed complete replacement
In addition to that, the couple who were the last owners unfortunately went through a messy divorce at the same time, so out of anger they stole and damaged a lot of things in the house
The faucets and light fixtures were all missing, a cabinet door was ripped off the hinges, the back yard was nothing but dirt and trash, and the paint job - oof
The house was in such disrepair that it sat on the market for almost a year - that’s unheard of in Eagle County
People would look at the house, see the huge mess that it was, and pass
Yet we saw the potential that it had to be our perfect starter home
With a lot of work, we fixed it up into a beautiful place where we brought home our first two babies - a place with a lot of memories and that was such a blessing to us
How many of us broken people can relate to that house?
You feel that you are overlooked, passed on, that God could never use you or change you because of your past or even your present, because of your mistakes, because of your flaws, and so your heart sits empty for months or even years
Let me tell you that God is in the heart remodel business. He sees your potential, He sees the type of man or woman He is going to grow you into and He doesn’t shy away from doing the hard work to get you there
I think its such a cool picture especially when you think about what Jesus’ career was before He started His earthly ministry - He was a carpenter
He could take a boring old block of wood and turn it into something useful, something practical, or something beautiful
That’s what He wants to do with your life. You are His masterpiece, His handiwork, His poem.
No one is too far gone for the transformative work Jesus wants to do in His creation
The Bible is full of stories of men and women who were broken, who were failures, who sinned and fell, yet God did a beautiful work in their hearts and used them in great ways
Just look at the genealogy of Jesus given to us in Matthew 1. (Who says genealogies aren’t fun?!?)
In that list, the family tree of Jesus, the family tree that should be the most holy and perfect one there is, I see a liar, a thief, a john, a slave trader, 2 prostitutes, a murderer, and adulterer, an idolator, a political divisionist, and a failed king
Yet God used all of that failure to bring forth the savior of the world
Jesus’ grace and love can transform even the most wretched heart
So how do we get there then? How can we move from this state of brokenness or emptiness to a place of beauty and usefulness?
If you’re taking notes this morning, let me suggest 5 things we need to do to allow God to do that work of sanctification, His fixer upper work in your life
#1 - Remember that God came for the broken
Jesus, early in His earthly ministry, was calling men to follow Him and be His disciples
In that process He comes across a man named Levi, also known as Matthew
Matthew was a tax collector, and just like today, no one back then was happy about having to pay their taxes
In Israel in Jesus’ day, tax collectors had an even more unfavorable view than they do today
Now I’m sorry if you work for the IRS or you collect local taxes, its not you, it us. Just maybe tell me that you’re an accountant though when I ask what you do for work….
But back in Jesus’ day, tax collectors were considered traitors and thieves.
The Roman Empire was in charge of the land of Israel, and they collected taxes from the people to run their empire that was oppressing the Jewish people
So what the Romans did was recruit Jews to do this work. If you were a Jewish man who went to work for Rome to collect tax money, you were seen as a traitor to your own country
Additionally, the Romans would allow tax collectors to keep any extra money they could get out of people
So if the Smith family owed $500 in taxes, the tax collector was allowed to make them pay $1000, under threat by Roman soldiers, and the collector could keep the extra $500 for himself
Many tax collectors became wealthy this way as it wasn’t uncommon for them to charge people 2-4x the amount they actually owed
So as we are introduced to Matthew, he is a scumbag. No one likes him, and he has a life full of sin
But Jesus sees the potential in him
He calls Matthew to follow Him, and Matthew’s life is changed - he gets saved and invites Jesus over for dinner and then invites all his tax collector friends over to meet the man who changed his life
The religious leaders caught wind of this, and they sneak their way into this dinner, and Luke 5 tells us
30 And their scribes and the Pharisees complained against His disciples, saying, “Why do You eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners?” 31 Jesus answered and said to them, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. 32 I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners, to repentance.”
The broken is who Jesus came to save. The hurting is who Jesus came to heal. The unworthy is who Jesus came to redeem
This should cause all of us to have great hope in our hearts.
You are not a lesser Christian because of your past. God cannot use you less because you are flawed and broken
We know that God chooses to use the weak and foolish of this world for His purposes so that people can see it and glory in the Lord, not in mankind
Don’t ever think that God can’t use you, or doesn’t want to use you, or can only use you to a lesser degree than others.
If you are a sinner, if you are broken, then you are just the type of person God wants to use for His glory.
#2 - God needs to root out our sin
The #1 thing that gets in the way of us doing these good works, that gets in the way of our sanctification, is our sin
We often hear that God loves you or accepts you just as you are
And that’s true to a degree - God’s love for us is unconditional, meaning it isn’t based on anything we do
When Jesus met the woman caught in act of adultery in John chapter 8, Jesus forgives her and accepts her, He doesn’t condemn her
But He also tells her to, “go and sin no more”
He wanted to change her life, He wanted to root the sin out of her life b/c sin prevents closeness with the Father.
God wants to root out our sin so He can be closer to us
So when the Bible says, “the Lord disciplines those He loves” in Hebrews 12, we know its true. That discipline comes because of His love for us and His desire to be close to us, not because He’s mad at us or is displeased with us or wants to hurt us in His wrath
That change, that rooting out, He wants it to be more than surface level though, so God works to root out that sin to a depth that sometimes is uncomfortable for us
Recently God has been doing a similar work in my own heart, rooting out my pride and my ego
I’m a pastor, right, so I know that pride and ego are bad and if I boast, I should only boast in the Lord
But that pride was deep in my heart, and the Lord has been taking a scalpel to it and cutting it out of me.
Its been a painful process, and when I think He’s done, He goes deeper, and cuts out more.
Then I hit that point where I go “okay Lord, I think I’ve got the picture!”, spiritual lesson learned!
But then it’s not deep enough. And He doesn’t want it to just be a spiritual lesson, God calls me to put that humility into action and die to self instead of live for my desire.
I will be the first to admit that this hasn’t been much fun. But I see the usefulness of it. I see the application of it. And even though my pride and ego still swells up and my flesh rears its ugly head, God has done a deep rooting out of this sin.
This work has to be deep. God doesn’t want it just to be shallow
Like if a house has structural damage, and the studs and beams that support it are rotten, He doesn’t just replace the drywall and slap a fresh coat of paint on it. The bones of that house are still bad
God wants to treat the depths of our hearts, and not just the surface.
#3 - Growth only comes as we hear God speak to us
Being on staff here, one of my jobs is to do counseling from time to time
I cannot tell you how many times I have someone come to my office to talk to me about a struggle they are having, and when I ask them if they’re reading their Bibles, they say no
The Pew Research Center says that less than half of Christians read their Bibles at least once per week, and a third of Christians seldom or never read the Word 1
Imagine if you could only eat a meal once a week - how would that affect your body?
You’d be malnourished - that’s not enough
The same is true spiritually - we cannot be spiritually fed once a week and be growing.
God speaks to us primarily through His word
12 For the word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.
16 All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness,
1 Blessed is the man Who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly, Nor stands in the path of sinners, Nor sits in the seat of the scornful; 2 But his delight is in the law of the Lord, And in His law he meditates day and night. 3 He shall be like a tree Planted by the rivers of water, That brings forth its fruit in its season, Whose leaf also shall not wither; And whatever he does shall prosper.
#4 - Sanctification requires us to have open hands
You’ve probably heard it said before that God doesn’t just want a part of your life, He wants all of it
Holding back an area of your life from the Lord will keep Him from making you the complete man or woman He wants you to be. It’s like remodeling the kitchen but the master bathroom is still a mess because you won’t trust the contractor to do that work
So when we withhold things from the Lord like our finances, our sex life, our media consumption, our career path, our friendships, our hopes and dreams - those things will still be filled with brokenness and will not be glorifying to the Lord
This point goes along with God’s desire to root out sin in our lives
We shouldn’t withhold sin from Him.
The flirtatious relationship with your coworker, the internet site you frequent, the late night habit you have - you should desire to offer it up to the Lord with open hands to deal with
23 Search me, O God, and know my heart; Try me, and know my anxieties; 24 And see if there is any wicked way in me, And lead me in the way everlasting.
This point also goes along with our futures - our hopes and dreams
The sanctifying work, the fixer upper work God wants to do in your life, includes your steps and your future
Are you willing to offer it all up to God with open hands, and to let the Lord lead in whatever way He chooses?
This is easier said than done. You and I, we can have dreams and hopes and desires, but maybe those are selfish. Maybe those aren’t from the Lord. Maybe He’s calling you to something else because He needs to do a work
Remember these good works Ephesians 2:10 talks about, they were prepared beforehand or pre-ordained.
God knows the path He wants you to walk down, our job is to trust that He is good, that His paths are good, and that the results will be good
#5 - Jesus is a finisher
Be confident that the Lord will not just start a work, but He’ll finish it
6 being confident of this very thing, that He who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ;
According to a 2018 study by porch.com, the average American homeowner has 9 unfinished home projects 2
HGTV has an entire show about this where they bring someone in to help people who have started a project but haven’t been able to finish it
God is not like that, He doesn’t start a project that He doesn’t finish
That’s because HE is doing the work
HE is faithful, HE is trustworthy, HE has the vision for the end result
We need to trust that the Lord knows what He is doing, and no matter how painful or confusing or difficult that work is, we need to trust that He has the end in mind
There’s a famous story about the painter and sculptor Michelangelo.
He was the artist who made the David statue, considered to be one of the finest sculptures ever created.
He was asked how he could take a piece of marble, a hunk of rock, and turn it into something so exquisite and beautiful.
The story goes that Michelangelo replied, “The sculpture is already complete within the marble block, before I start my work. It is already there, I just have to chisel away the superfluous material.”
God knows the masterpiece that He has created. He knows the good works that He has prepared for you to walk in
The chisels, the shaping, that might be painful, but God is getting rid of the superfluous material, the stuff that doesn’t glorify Him, in order to finish the work He is doing in your life.
God has a work to do in you and through you
But He doesn’t just ask for the perfect or the righteous.
Jesus came for the broken, to work in each of of our lives
He wants to root our sin
He wants to speak to us through His word
He wants us to have open hands, laying everything on the table, leaving no stone unturned in our hearts
And he wants us to trust Him, because He will finish the work He started
Take hope. You are God’s masterpiece, His workmanship, His poem.
God loves you and He wants to use you, so allow Him to do that work.
Communion
Close & Pray
1 https://www.pewresearch.org/religious-landscape-study/database/christians/christian/frequency-of-reading-scripture/
2 https://swnsdigital.com/us/2018/06/the-average-home-has-9-unfinished-diy-projects-study-finds/#:~:text=Painting%20%2D%2055%20percent,ENDS
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